JOCKEYS, TRAINERS, OWNERS & HORSES.

Why jockeys view social media is only for them to answer. They live the hard life anyway, even if a minority of them live a financially rewarding life, so why subject themselves to the foul and inadequate views of punters talking through their empty pockets?

So many jockeys have to starve themselves, or at least must keep a close eye on what they eat, in order to ride racehorses for a living. They are not restrained by the eight-hour working day, with their day starting before the cock crows, no doubt riding out two lots before breakfast, even if breakfast is no more than a slice of toast and a cup of black coffee, before a long road trip to whichever racecourse is their destination. Then the long road home, either with a winner or two in the bag or the disappointment of expectation ripped asunder by misfortune or an error of judgement.

Even when born into a racing family, jockeys have to earn the right to choose to be a jockey. They do not leave school and the next day they are donning a jockeys' silks. Even the likes of Ryan Moore began their journey to fame and wealth by mucking-out their ponies before going off to school, and even when on the lower rungs of the career ladder you can bet your bottom dollar that they were still mucking out and sweeping the yard. I suspect even now the father with a family continues to muck out the kids ponies, if only to spare his wife the chore, as hard graft and discipline is instilled and ingrained into everyone who makes it big in the racing world. I admire jockeys and rarely find myself criticising them. It is why I would like a fairer playing field created for them, where everyone of them achieves the opportunity to succeed, not that any of them can expect more than a small dose of the limelight during their career. Walk a mile in a jockeys boots before you have the right to throw foul comments in their direction.

Jockeys risk injury, their health and their lives. Trainers risk much more. Some, the obvious ones, those who win regularly at the big meetings, make great financial reward from their occupation. Most do not. Jim Crowley is about to depart on the second stage of his career in racing, perhaps third given he was once a National Hunt jockey. He is a rich man, no doubt, perhaps with a million-pound in his bank accounts. As a trainer he is putting his good financial footing in jeopardy. As with any new business venture, in the first eighteen-months or so he cannot expect to make a profit. What he is about to do is invest in himself and lady-luck will play a big part in whether he is a success or not.

Most people who turn to training do not start with a large fortune behind them. Most have to rent stables, take what gallops are available to them, make do with any type of owner that comes along and get their business off the ground with staff that might not be of the highest quality or even be reliable. He or she will doubtless have to ride out as many, if not more, times in a morning than their staff and will have no secretary to deal with the paperwork or the phone calls unless they have a spouse willing to take a turn at the wheel. Training is a 24-hour a day occupation. Financially it can be brutal, with as many trainers going to the wall as there are newbies coming into the training ranks. Training racehorses can be, I suspect, a wonderful way to live. Plainly it can also be a moneypit of financial loss, with the dream of making it pay the rent washed away by the nightmare of reality.

Owners can be wonderful; a lifeline for all trainers, sucessful or otherwise. The old adage of the best way to make a small fortune out of horse racing is to start with a large fortune is evidenced throughout history, with wealthy families made ruined by the gambling debts of the head of the family. Owners often come into the sport with rose-coloured hopes only to find the road to glory to be long, winding and financially draining. Owner/breeders are a blessing to any trainer, a steady stream of yearlings each year, hopefully from pedigrees with a host of big race winners in their history. Alas, the owner/breeder is becoming rarer and rarer these days. 

Owners are the oil that allows the cogs of the sport to function. Without owners the sport would not exist. The sport began with one owner of a horse challenging someone to a race, with the winner taking the spoils. There were no trainers or jockeys at the very beginnings of our sport, and that should be remembered. Which makes me say that the owner and the horse should be pre-eminent, above and beyond the claim of the jockey or trainer. That said, the owner should accept his responsibility and pay his or her training fees on time as their cash is the fuel that powers the racing engine and to this end their cheques or bank transfers should go to their trainers through Weatherbys, with anyone who defaults suspended until the debt has been paid. Owners are beautiful. They can also be the snake oil of the sport.

Without the horse, that first challenge back in the 1700's (or was it the early 1800's?) could not have been set and documented. I canot see pig racing catching on, can you? So the horse must be supreme. We must continue to honour the breed; to protect it from extinction; to return stamina to the forefront of all major breeding operations. No rule of racing should place the human aspect of the sport on a pedestal above the horse as we owe the thoroughbred racehorse everything. Jockey, trainer, owner, punter, bookmaker, journalist and breeder; we all owe the racehorse a debt that can never be paid except by ensuring its care from birth to honorable death.